Quilt Odyssey Weekend Continued

I didn't tell the story of the weekend very well in yesterday's blog since I was so eager to post all the gorgeous pictures of all the quilts I saw. So, let me try again today.

As usual, my SigO made the drive (two hours) so I could knit on the way. I worked on the infamous afghan, but didn't even get more than 1/4 of the way through a block. I'm doing a chevron block and for some odd reason it's really giving me fits. It's nothing but knit and purl, but I keep miscounting, which, of course, totally whacks out the pattern, so I have to keep tinking back a row.

Before we went to the Quilt Odyssey, we had to go find a yarn shop. I diligently researched the best one for us to visit in the area...you know, if I had been this diligent in college or my career, I'd probably be a multi-millionaire by now! There were about four shops in the general vicinity of Hershey, PA and I settled on The Colonial Yarn Shop primarily because they had Tofutsies sock yarn and I've been wanting to check that yarn out for a while now. I mean, how cool is it that there's yarn made from the shells of crabs and shrimps?

I left the store with one skein of tofutsies, one skein of Opal Feelings, two skeins of sock yarn the SigO picked out for himself and eight hanks of Kollage's Cornucopia in Brandy Colorway. More importantly, I met two really awesome knitters there who were both wearing the Zephyr Knits "Green Gables" top that they had knitted up using TyDye. We all decided the Cornucopia would look great knitted up in that same top...it really doesn't take much to convince me to buy more yarn.
After the yarn shop, we headed over to the Quilt Odyssey where we saw all the gorgeous quilts in yesterday's post. Usually, I would have then gone to Show and Tell with the rest of the quilters, but the SigO and I were celebrating our sixth anniversary. Six months that is! Obligatory "Enjoy it while you can" inserts here.

So, we had dinner at Alfred's Victorian where the atmosphere is wonderful and the food is ho hum. A tad disappointing, obviously, but we did have a nice bottle of Chianti which masked the yawn of the food prettty well.





And so, finally, Carol's class! Sunday morning I showed up in class a full two minutes before start time...that's shockingly early for me! But, after all, the instructions did say to show up early in order to learn the machines! Unfortunately, the instructions also said to pre-cut all your fabrics. So, I only got 50% of that one--OK, 10%. I guess two minutes before start time isn't really considered "early" to some people! But, Carol was very patient, not to mention an awesome teacher.

This is the quilt we were inspired to re-create in our own creative way. Since not only had I not pre-cut my fabrics, but I also needed to leave early; I didn't even get one full block finished. Right now, what I did get done is laid out neatly on my sewing table as are all the pre-cut pieces all nicely organized and ready to be sewn up. Just another victim of "startitis" that will undoubtedly sit patiently for several months before I pick it up again. Luckily, I've ordered Carol's DVD on how to paper piece, so when I finally do get back to this I'll have a virtual Carol to help guide me through the process again.

Here's Carol teaching us all how to paper piece, wasting the least amount of fabric and creating perfect points.

and here she is showing some of her gorgeous quilts. This one is called Mardi Gras and I think it was my favorite of the lot...although that was no easy trick picking only one favorite. I especially love the quilting she did that looks like fireworks coming out of the stars.

So, it was a great class and a great weekend. I met lots of wonderful ladies, as I always do at these things and learned some new tricks and found some new toys. Of course, I spent way too much money. Not least of which was spent on some incredible African Indigo's...more about those tomorrow!